U.S. Navy Commissions Littoral Combat Ship 15 (Billings)

Sur le même sujet

• 

  10 juillet 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  General Atomics to conduct test flights of SeaGuardian drone in Japan

  BY BEN SAMPSON ON 9TH JULY 2020 General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is to validate its SeaGuardian unmanned drone for use by Japan's Coast Guard Service in mid-September in a series of test flights. The long endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) SeaGuardian is a variant of the MQ-9 Reaper drone and features lightning protection, composite materials, and sense and avoid technology. The 79 ft (24 m) wingspan aircraft can fly for up to 40 hours at up to 50,000 ft. The validation flights, which will be conducted in partnership with Asia Air Survey (AAS) are expected to run for approximately two months and will include support from the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force (JMSDF) at its Hachinohe base in Aomori Prefecture. The flights aim to validate the wide-area maritime surveillance capabilities of RPAS for carrying out the Japan Coast Guard's (JCG) missions, such as search and rescue, disaster response, and maritime law enforcement. According to the JCG, the flight validation will be conducted in accordance with “the policy on strengthening maritime security systems,” using drones to perform maritime wide-area surveillance using new technology. “We're pleased to support the JCG's goals of validating SeaGuardian's maritime surveillance performance,” said Linden Blue, CEO of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems. “We know there is a need in Japan and worldwide for affordable, long-endurance airborne surveillance in the maritime domain.” The SeaGuardian system features a multi-mode maritime surface-search radar with inverse synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging mode, an automatic identification system (AIS) receiver, and high definition – full motion video sensor equipped with optical and infrared cameras. This sensor suite enables detection and identification of surface vessels over thousands of square nautical miles. The aircraft's Raytheon-supplied SeaVue surface-search radar system provides automatic tracking of maritime targets and correlation of AIS transmitters with radar tracks. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems' SeaGuardian and SkyGuardian RPAS are designed to operate in all-weather and are built to achieve Type Certification based on STANAG (NATO standard) airworthiness compliance. https://www.aerospacetestinginternational.com/news/defense/general-atomics-to-conduct-test-flights-of-seaguardian-drone-in-japan.html

• 

  26 novembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial

  Spatial militaire : «Nous avons les moyens de nos ambitions», selon le général Friedling (CDE)

  DEFENSE Spatial militaire : «Nous avons les moyens de nos ambitions», selon le général Friedling (CDE) Dans le cadre du Paris Air Forum, le général Michel Friedling, Commandant du CDE (Commandement de l'Espace) au sein de l'armée de l'Air et de l'Espace, Emmanuel Chiva, directeur de l'Agence de l'innovation de défense, Franck Poirrier, PDG de Sodern, représentant des équipementiers au Cospace, et Philippe Gautier, président d'Hemeria, ont échangé au sujet de la stratégie spatiale de défense française. «L'espace joue un rôle essentiel et est au cœur d'une compétition sans précédent. C'est un thé'tre de confrontation avec ses enjeux propres», rappelle le général Michel Friedling. «Nous avons les moyens de nos ambitions, et nous avons déjà des résultats. Nous avons signé les premiers contrats de service pour la surveillance de l'espace. Nous avons formé nos premiers opérateurs spatiaux. Nous aurons nos premières infrastructures à Toulouse en 2023 et premier centre de commandement en 2025», relève-t-il. L'industrie travaille à mettre au point des démonstrateurs pour la capacité d'intervention en orbite, qui devraient voler dès 2023 et 2024. Sodern travaille ainsi sur des «capteurs d'intrus», qui détecteront les objets approchant des satellites Syracuse 4, basés sur sa technologie de viseurs d'étoiles, tandis que Hemeria étudie des petits satellites patrouilleurs Yoda, pour la protection rapprochée des grands satellites géostationnaires, à partir de son expérience sur le nanosatellite Angels. Franck Poirrier, PDG de Sodern, souligne : «l'industrie est là pour servir la souveraineté et c'est pour cela qu'il faut inclure la politique industrielle dans notre réflexion autour de la maîtrise de l'espace». Un «plan équipementier» a déjà été avalisé par Airbus Defence & Space, Thales Alenia Space et les trois ministères de tutelle : le ministère de l'Économie, des Finances et de la Relance, le ministère de l'Enseignement Supérieur et de la Recherche et le ministère des Armées. L'Agence de l'innovation de défense (AID) joue un rôle majeur : «Nous sommes une usine à accélérer les projets, avec un budget d'environ 1 milliard d'euros», explique Emmanuel Chiva. «Nous sommes là pour piloter et orienter l'innovation de défense, mais également pour capter dans le civil les innovations pertinentes, car le monde spatial est éminemment dual». La Tribune du 26 novembre

• 

  10 septembre 2020 | International, Aérospatial, Naval, Terrestre, C4ISR, Sécurité

  Industry could wait months for COVID reimbursements from Pentagon

  By: Aaron Mehta WASHINGTON — As the defense department seeks billions in emergency funding to reimburse industry for costs incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pentagon's top acquisition official pledged not to rush that money out the door. Speaking at the annual Defense News Conference, Ellen Lord, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said it will likely take five to six months before any reimbursements to industry under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) act will take place as the department seeks a “very data driven approach” to that money. Section 3610 of the CARES act allows firms serving the federal government to seek reimbursement for pandemic-related expenses, but Congress hasn't passed corresponding appropriations. Defense officials have said they need roughly $10 billion, and that without added funding from Congress, the Pentagon would have to dip into modernization and readiness funds. “We believe we need that appropriation to maintain readiness because if we do not get that what we are going to find is we are not going to get the number of units delivered, we are not going to maintain warfighter readiness, we're not going to move forward in modernization,” Lord said. “We would like to take the one-time hit and then see where we go from there.” Should Congress appropriate the requested funds, the Pentagon would issue a request for proposal, with the large primes gathering data from up and down their supply chains before returning with their requests to the Pentagon. That process will likely take two to three months, Lord said. “Then we want to look at all of the proposals at once. It isn't going to be a first-in-first-out and we have to rationalize using the rules we've put in place, what would be reimbursable, and what's not,” she added. “So overall, we think five to six months, in terms of a process.” When the COVID pandemic struck in March, hundreds of defense subcontractors had to close up shop. As of now, only 30 remain shuttered, Lord said, although she acknowledged that the department is keeping a wary eye on the situation. “What we are looking for is whether or not we're maintaining warfighter readiness for our production programs, and then relative to modernization, whether we are hitting key milestones relative to development programs,” she said. “We have seen some slowdowns. We are carefully monitoring, using monthly metrics, where we are.” While the most recent round of quarterly earnings reports from public defense companies did not show a major slowdown from COVID, Lord warned that those reports “in large part don't reflect the hits that were taken by business,” warning of a “delayed response” in terms of the diseases' economic impact on the sector. “I would contend that most of the effects of COVID haven't yet been seen, because most companies gave their employees time off, they stretched out production, paid a lot of people for working 100% when perhaps they were only getting 50% of the hours in and so forth,” she said. “So I think the system has absorbed it up to this point in time. Now when we get to the point where we're having payments and incentive fees and award fees earned, and if we haven't done the deliveries, that's where you're going to see the hit.” https://www.defensenews.com/smr/defense-news-conference/2020/09/09/industry-could-wait-months-for-covid-reimbursements-from-pentagon